The Jacobs Media Blog

One of the quiet trends that may be impacting American business – and radio is right there in the center of it – has to do with morale, employee satisfaction, and keeping staffers upbeat and positive during challenging times. The events of the past few years – the loss of faith in financial institutions, company […]

Our post about apps and talent earlier this week elicited many comments – especially on Twitter where a number of jocks chimed in about their role in differentiating radio from its digital competitors.  The best comment came from researcher and techie, Mike Anthony, and it’s the subject of this morning’s guest post.  Thanks to Mike […]

There’s are a lot of shocked faces in the radio industry over this new Gallup poll revealing that radio comes in dead last as a main source for news and current events.  I’m not sure why. TV takes first place with 55% of the votes, followed by the Internet (21%), print (9%), and finally radio (6%).  […]

If you’re in radio, you might want to send a gift basket (a nice bottle of wine will do) to your friends in Cupertino this month.   They’re celebrating a big birthday. That’s right – we’re talking Apple.  Because first the iPhone, and then the App Store (celebrating its fifth birthday) may go down as the greatest things to […]

In much the same way that Major League Baseball uses the All-Star Game as a natural break point between the first and second half of its long season, all of us in the media business can do the same thing coming off our own July 4th holiday break. And in that spirit, I’ve thought a […]

You’re probably thinking that the holiday isn’t even here yet, and I’m already slacking by turning over the blog to a guest writer – two days in a row.  Actually, we seem to have a New Jersey theme this week, as you’ll read in a moment. Bill Jacobs has been consulting stations for our company for […]

Earlier this year I bumped into Wayne Campbell and Kurt Hahn from Filmhouse at a convention.  If you’ve never heard of Filmhouse, chances are you’re somewhat new to radio.  That’s because it wasn’t that long ago that it was standard operation procedure for many stations to head into the spring and fall books armed with a TV […]

The “big news” story on Friday was all about BlackBerry, and how parent company RIM missed their earnings projection.  This sent their stock tumbling 28% in what CNN Money referred to as “a surprise loss.” Surprise loss?  To whom? It was certainly no surprise, especially to stations that participated in this year’s Techsurvey9 – or […]

It’s that inevitable moment where a business or a brand realizes that perhaps it’s stayed a bit too long at the dance. Last week, the board of Men’s Wearhouse offed spokeperson and company founder George Zimmer in a scene right out of Game of Thrones – minus the blood. For Zimmer, he was the long-time […]

The more we read about “big data” (now an official term in the Oxford English Dictionary, by the way), the more it seduces us into thinking about scalability, efficiency, algorithms, and megatrends when it comes to winning over customers. But the reality is that while it is possible to amass thousands or even millions of […]

There aren’t a whole lot of physical knobs and buttons on most of the “digital dashboards” rolling off the assembly lines these days.  But as the automakers grapple with finding ways to improve the user interface in their infotainment systems, we may see and hear more and more old school radio terms and gadgetry. But […]

You have to hand it Bob Lefsetz.  His “Lefsetz Letter,” frequently devoted to stories and topics about music, never fails to stimulate.  Bob always puts his emotional view of the industry front and center, inviting you to think and engage with his opinions. The other day, JacoBLOG reader Mike Anthony brought one of Bob’s recent […]

Lori Lewis is a student of the social media game.  I don’t believe there’s anyone in radio who studies this space more than her.  And yet, as she’ll tell you, success in social media is a very inexact “science.”  In fact, what works for one station very likely may not work for another.  But the […]

We can throw the 93% number around all we like, but the bottom line is that radio listening levels vary depending on the group you’re looking at. In a recent series of posts, we’ve talked about the concerning radio problem centering on lost youth – specifically, the notion that the medium has lost a generation of listeners over the […]

The news that “Mayhem In The Morning” was given the ax by Lincoln Financial’s 790 The Zone/Atlanta wasn’t really news.  And the story really isn’t about whether they should have been suspended, fired, or disciplined. What makes this disaster “news” is that it keeps happening.  Again and again. In case you missed it, this morning […]

Radio stations throughout the land have all been fighting a war of attrition these past few years: shrinking marketing budgets. Now if we were a bunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, we’d be in trouble.  But because we’re radio stations – brands that consumers still are passionate about – we have alternatives, and pretty good […]